Experts “AIF” thinking about what could be the national idea of Russia today.
Maksim Shevchenko, a TV host, publicist, member of the Council under RF President on development of civil society and human rights:
– For me Russia’s national idea – solidarity, freedom, justice, development. If you want, abbreviated USSR. It is those shared values that for centuries was formulated by the Russian people and expressed in his culture, the works – classical and folk. Our people sincerely believe, sometimes unconsciously, that there will come a Kingdom of justice on earth is the truth of God. This is what we understand as good. And bad for the Russian people (and wrote about it Dostoevsky in the “Legend of the Grand Inquisitor”) is a totalitarian state which completely subordinates the life and liberty of person a “high need”.
Interestingly, by the way, it turns out: in the NINETEENTH century benckendorff with his gendarmes tried to tell people how to live. In Stalin time NKVD when they beat my grandfather, yelled at him: “I’ll teach you the Home and lot to love!” And now some investigators teach us patriotism – they have a strong tradition… But if we talk about the choice between the patriots and the liberals, then, in my opinion, they are equally alien to the nature of our country and its peoples. Elite is the highest layer, people who shove each other for the right to dominate this, as they believe, “barbarian” territory. They are two heads of the dragon. In the NINETEENTH century, and now these heads are squabbling among themselves for the right to eat meat all the rest.
Vladimir Lavrov, doctor of historical Sciences, academician of RANS:
– Russia has the world in its own special mission. Russia defended Western civilization from the invasion of the Mongols. Only Russia managed to defeat Napoleon. During WWII our country has made a decisive contribution to the defeat of fascism.
It becomes clear why more than a thousand years ago, somewhere on the outskirts of the ancient and great civilizations occurs, the young Russian power. The meaning of Russia’s existence is to solve problems that no other country can not solve. Now these two problems. One is to confront the U.S. claims to world dominance. And the second global problem is spiritual and moral degradation. The West has moved away from Christianity, and Russians in temples, they are created new monasteries.
According to surveys, 80% of Russians today identify themselves with Orthodoxy, however, de facto the dominant ideology is the ideology of consumption. From Orthodoxy the masses moved, and broke away from the Communist ideas, but so far nothing came. What are we now? In Russian, which is a state-nation, there is no coherent national and ideological identification.
And the result of the ideology of consumption – a low birth rate, because the child is stopping to enjoy the “beautiful life”. Only a return to traditional values can give a major leap in the birth rate. Otherwise, the Holy place is never empty. There will be others. And Russia will cease to be Russian.
Get up!
And what do you think about combining the ideas of the Russians themselves?
As at the time the said A. Solzhenitsyn, the national idea – “this is the desired way of life in the country, owning its population. Such a unifying idea, the concept can be useful, but should never be artificially penned in a position of power or forcefully implemented”.
Could it be the national idea of patriotism? According to a recent poll, 80% of Russians feel Patriotic. Most understand by patriotism, love of country and pride in it. 27% of the population mean work for the good of the country, 22% – the desire to change the situation in the country to provide her a decent future.
A few years ago, the problem analysis Center held a national competition to find a national motto. Ranked places were taken by the following: “Law. Justice. Prosperity”, “Russian do not surrender”, “Russia is the people,” “Russia with God in Russia each of us,” “Statehood, democracy and spirituality.” And later held a competition art concepts of “national idea of Russia”. Won marketer of Moscow V. Saburov, who presented Russia in the image of a roly-poly: the state’s multifaceted, contradictory, are in constant motion, but always finding the balance. In explanation of ideas was created the layout of the dynamic sculpture “Russia – try a blockage (see photo). Around it turns out that in the minds of Russians the national idea is a strong Russia. And powerful people – and the people, and government that work for the benefit of themselves and the country.
The main thing – people
Valery Khomyakov, Director General of national strategy Council:
Any people unite universal values – for example, family values, health…
No one in the world any particular national idea has not looking. Take China: they had under Mao , the idea is to build your Chinese socialism, to destroy external and internal enemies. But came to Deng Xiaoping and said: no matter what color the cat is as long it catches mice… And Chinese develop the economy, improve people’s living standards. The same idea in the US and in Europe – the rise of welfare of citizens. We are also one national idea – the building of communism – have already passed. The idea of something that might have been attractive, but has built some sort of deformity. Can we stop the bullshit? Let’s just build a normal life, a normal state – even if it is our national idea!
Michael Weller, writer and philosopher:
– People samoidentifikatsiya on two levels – personal and group. The person need not only the ideal of personal prosperity – it needs the ideal of a great state. He needs to know that he is a citizen of a great country. Mighty, glorious, distinguished. The desire to be a citizen of a great country and a desire to have this great country and those feelings in certain periods, takes the form of the national idea.
